World Filter

Early the next morning everyone had gathered up. Sam had already sent off their location to command last night and from here they were probably another four hours out from their destination.

Taking up formation they headed out. Traveling down side roads and alleyways they made short work of any stray Corrupted they found.

The time passed quickly and soon enough they could spot the power station smokestacks peaking over the nearby buildings. They were just passing through a junkyard when Mark noticed something strange.

Whistling for everyone's attention he pointed out what he saw. It didn’t really make sense, but off to the side, there was a damaged street powerline. An electrical buzz was quietly discharging to itself.

Somehow a Corrupted was up in the air, lodged between the cables. It was long dead but it was almost as if it had crawled up there on its own and taken a bite out of the powerlines. Mark had never seen Corrupted act this way, what was even the point?

“Hmm, possible Ordinator event. Engineer, could this be the cause of our problem?” Sam asked while turning her camera on.

Elizabeth stepped forward and inspected the line.

“No, this type of localized circuit would not be able to cause the disturbances we have been seeing all over the city.”

“Okay note it for command and let's keep moving. Full alert for anything else out of the ordinary.” Jonathan said.

They marched on and quickly discovered more dead Corrupted along the powerlines. The numbers grew as they got closer to their destination.

They were carbonized husks at this stage but that was almost more unnerving because there were basically no ‘living’ Corrupted running around.

Just as the station came into view Sam spoke up.

“Alright, I officially do not like this, cameras on. Once we get inside comms to channels 1 and 2.”

Mark flicked the switch in his chest and reinforced his construct.

There was a perimeter wall around the whole place along with a large steel gate that sat open. The entrance to the facility was entirely open to the street. The gates to the place looked damaged but not from Corrupted, more like someone had driven a vehicle through them.

“Wepons live, expect possible civilians,” Jonathan said.

Moving forward they entered the facility.

Mark's feet crunched over loose stones. As they got closer to the main building they spotted a damaged truck just outside. The front grille was caved in and the vehicle was abandoned.

Looking at the simple set of metal fire doors leading into the building, the group approached.

Jonathan pushed them open and the smell of stale, stagnant air rushed out. Calling for light he proceeded to enter.

Mark created a small orb and sent it up. The ceilings weren't high but they were in a long corridor that lead off into several different rooms.

Elizabeth spoke up.

“We need to get the main control center to run diagnostics. That should be at the end of this hallway to our left”

The hallway was narrow only allowing three of them to walk side by side.

Keeping watch the group slowly made their way deeper into the building. The silence was deafening, nothing moved to attack them, they never even saw signs that anything had been here since the system had taken over.

Soon enough they got to a door marked ‘Contol room’ Jonathan entered with a small group. Through the gap, Mark could see a portion of the room. It was in a state of disarray and blinking lights were flashing on the consoles.

“Clear!” Jonathan called out from the frontline.

Mark entered the room in front of the engineers.

Elizabeth moved past him and went straight to the computers.

“Alright give me a moment to figure this out,” she said.

They used the time to set guards and monitor the hallway. Nothing came charging out of the darkness, just a dead-still corridor.

Thirty minutes later Mark heard Elizabeth swear.

“Generation is working but something near distribution must be damaged on-site, it's causing a power sink, which is starving out primary system infrastructure. We’ll need to head to the maintenance tunnels if we want to locate it. I have a general area code but we are going to have to find whatever causing this on our own” she said.

“Wait. Do things like this happen on their own or could it be caused by people tampering with it?” Sam asked her.

Elizabeth chewed on her lower lip.

“Both are possibilities but with all the fail safes in place the second is more likely”

“Right then we should have a home team and a striker force. We can’t afford to lose anyone, you direct us from here and when we’ve confirmed the area is clear we bring you in” Sam said pulling up a schematic of the place on her tablet and handing it to Elizabeth.

She nodded taking the offered pad.

“Good, Jaya, Chris, Franklin you’re with us. Matt, I’m leaving you in charge here. Mark, staying or going?” Jonathan said.

“Going,” he said.

“Um, it's a labyrinth down there and the passages are tight. So it’ll be single file and depending on the damage, exposed wires could be lethal. I’m not talking about just a little shock either, the current in those conductors will kill a man” Elizabeth cautioned.

They set their comms to the same channel and Mark joined the strike force. His thoughts were that it was safer here so the people that need the protection would be the ones going to explore.

The squad of fifteen men was cut to eight going and seven staying, along with the engineering unit.

Once they separated the home team shut the door leading into the control room and their group was alone in the hallway.

Elizabeth's voice came through the comms and they were off down the winding corridors.

The place was just too silent, with the exception of the dull sound of heavy machinery at work and the odd sound of static discharges. Where had these supposed people gone or even the Corrupted, something wasn’t adding up.

Soon enough they came to a set of dark stairs leading down into the maintenance tunnels.

As they began descending Jaya let out a scream. Everyone turned, weapons raised, only to see her standing there panting.

“Sorry. Sorry. I thought I felt something, it's just too quiet here you know?” she said slightly shaken feeling all over herself. Sam looked worriedly at her but Jaya insisted everything was fine.

When they got to the bottom there was a thick metal door standing ajar. Explaining what they saw Elizabeth said that it was meant to remain closed at all times.

This is where things got a bit more difficult, they had reached the point where single file became relevant and the sound of machine hum was louder down here.

Jonathan chose to put a strong Aura user in front and back. Seeing as it would be hard to fight in the cramped conditions changing position would slow them down heavily. Jonathan took point and Chris was at the rear. Franklin was behind Mark who was near the middle, and Sam and Jaya were at the back. Checking the tunnel Chris said there was nothing close by save for a few rats.

Only when everyone gave the all-clear did they enter.

Slowly they made their way through the literal maze of winding passageways, plastered with cables and stretching spans of wire. Panels with breakers and switches were placed at every intersection.

Luckily it was pretty dry down here and everything seemed in good condition. That was until they neared their destination. The sounds of electrical buzzing filled the tunnel along with sporadic arcs of electricity lighting up the tunnel. Chris still hadn’t found anything out of the ordinary.

The wires were in a disastrous state though. It somehow looked like caples were melting through their insulating casings. Exposing metal wire to the air. In some places, some of the cables even hung down in their path forcing them to duck under live wires filled with a humming charge.

After a couple more minutes of travel Elizabeth came through the comms once more.

“Alright, guys you should be very near the source now.”

At the same time, Chris shouted out

“Guys I’m getting something!”

Suddenly there was a shout of pain from behind.

Sam screamed over everything.

“Jaya?! Jaya stop! Stop!” wrestling movement came from behind them and the sound of discharging electricity and buzzing filled the tunnel.

Mark turned back only for his vision to be blocked by Franklin.

“Incoming unfriendlies directly ahead!” Chris shouted once more.

Mark's head snapped back to the front.

The area was chaos and too many things were happening at once.

In an attempt to slow things down, Mark created two strong panels of force and sent them through the squad, stopping when he reached either side and setting them in place.

Mark heard movement and shouting coming from up front.

“Mark!” Sam shouted.

Mark's head turned in both directions and he made his choice.

Franklin tried his best to move out of Mark's way as he pushed past, making sure no cables touched either of them.

When he got around he saw Sam clutching an unmoving Jaya in her lap. Jaya was covered in burns and Lichtenberg patterns. As he got closer the smell of burning flesh filled his nose.

Mark saw a delicate golden armor pulsing from the silver bracelet around Sam’s arm. It was the one she had gotten in the dungeon. If he remembered correctly it was an automatic defensive item that triggered if she was about to die.

Which meant something had activated it.

“Mark, please,” Sam said.

Kneeling down Mark brought Prana from his chest. At the same time, something slammed into his shield from the front. Straight away he could tell something was different from the normal attacks that just rebounded off his construct. Whatever was happening up front was persistent and actually vibrating against his force wall.

It would have to wait.

Sending Prana through his spell he asked Sam.

“What happened?”

Sam still seemed dazed.

“I-I don’t know, she suddenly just screamed like she was hurt and then started grabbing for the exposed wires. I tried to pull her away but she was already so close she…”

Mark nodded casting [Prana pulse] on Jaya. The spell hardly returned any information. [Prana pulse] had been one of the first spells Mark had gotten but he knew its limitations. It couldn't be used on things that weren't considered alive.

The spell was struggling to find anything to cling to.

Jaya was dead.

“Fuck! I’m starting compressions, Sam figure out what going on, I got this.”

She seemed hesitant and the comms were alive with panicked voices but a mask of determination dropped over her face as she went to work, moving towards the front.

“Enough! Jon what's going on-” she shouted into the comms.

Mark trusted her to do the rest, blocking them out he gave his full attention to Jaya, removing her armor he started CPR while pouring Prana into her heart trying to get it going again.

Everything was a mess and Prana was struggling to find any live tissue to cling to.

This was more than just a stopped heart. The current passing through those wires had cooked her alive, destroying any hope of resuscitation.

Mark refused to give up just yet and moved his Prana up to her head to keep her brain tissues alive. What he found stopped him in his tracks.

Her brain was completely fried, as in there was nothing to save. It almost looked like the current had run exclusively to this point but that was impossible.

Yes, the current would have hit her whole body, including her head but then it should have grounded itself near the soles of her feet. The main damage should not have been near her brain. Knowing it was hopeless he tried anyway, sending Prana to her head. His energy leaked into the area as it got to her brain, there was nothing for it to grab onto. Even if he did get her heart going again, all he’d be doing was keeping her body alive. There was no part that was Jaya here, just an empty vessel. He was too late.

Mark clenched his jaw and stopped compressions.

He had been recasting [Prana pulse] even as it faded to get some form of feedback, but just as he stopped, the spell picked up something. It was small and twisted, pressing up against the base of Jaya’s neck.

A separate entity, which is why he hadn’t detected it sooner. Jaya's dying body had acted as a wall to the spell, only when he was near enough to it did he pick it up.

It was no bigger than his hand and seemed to be wriggling against her burnt flesh.

Using [Sculpt Mana] he wrapped it up in a crushing sphere and pulled it off Jaya’s corpse.

What came into view was a small pale spider-like creature. Six strong legs had helped it to latch onto the base of her neck near her hairline. Where its fangs would have been was one lamprey mouth with rows of sharp black teeth. Finally, Mark noted that small static shocks arced between the hairs on its back.

It was tiny but Mark knew it was the culprit. Now that he was closer he recognized the buzzing sound from all over the compound. It sounded exactly like static but now that he was closer it was more like a chittering. He should have known it was not one of the compound's natural sounds.

Had this thing somehow shocked her? Or had it controlled her to grab the wire in the first place? The images of the corrupted outside clinging to the powerlines suddenly made more sense. Were those even Corrupted up there? It was hard to tell because of their carbonized nature.

Mark noticed the thing starting to wake up when the small static shocks started to arc across its body. A sudden vibration started to surround the creature as it attempted to wrestle free of the construct. Slowly he watched it begin to vibrate through his [Sculpt Mana]. It was somehow pushing through his spell. Although the speed was incredibly slow and he found he could slow it even further if he concentrated it would eventually make its way out.

Mark stared down at the creature and felt nothing but disgust and anger for it. Even with all spells and resources he had at his disposal, he still couldn’t save everyone. The apocalypse was still taking from him. Jaya had been so kind and willing to fight for others, but now she was just gone and he couldn’t do a damned thing to help.

Slowly closing his fist the creature wailed under the crushing pressure until its exoskeleton crunched under the weight.

1 x Corrupted Ghost cleansed[2]

1 System Points awarded

An: Walking order